Fourteen Years of Wardrobe Called a Transformation: What Was Actually Changing With Cara Delevingne

Cara Delevingne turns thirty-four today, and for the occasion the fashion industry does what it does best: lines up fourteen years of photographs in a neat sequence and calls it a "transformation". From rebellious punk to her most sensitive version. It sounds like growth. It is actually something else.

Look at the chronology. In 2012 she wins model of the year at the British Fashion Awards and wears tight mini dresses. The same year she debuts on the Victoria's Secret runway, recognisable by the eyebrows and by an attitude that does not try too hard. In May 2013 at the Met Gala, themed on punk, she stands in a black studded dress. In 2014 the tuxedo becomes her signature - often with trainers and nothing under the jacket.

Then comes the cut. The long hair goes for a film role and a platinum crop appears, and with it a period dominated by black, leather, metal. In 2016, around the premiere of Suicide Squad, that is her most rebellious phase - lace, tulle, leather jackets, boots.

Every one of those looks had a reason that has nothing to do with fashion. Cara was walking for Burberry, Fendi, Stella McCartney and Chanel, where she became one of Karl Lagerfeld's favourite muses. Then she moved into film. Then into music - I Feel Everything came out in 2017. The wardrobe was not changing because her taste matured, but because every new industry demands new packaging.

There is one moment in that sequence that is not packaging. In September 2021, at the Met Gala, she wears a white Dior trouser suit with an explicit anti-patriarchy message. In October 2018, at the wedding of Princess Eugenie of York, she arrives in a fully black tuxedo with a top hat - clothing that directly challenges the protocol of a royal wedding. Those are not trends. Those are decisions with an address.

And that is where the part a Balkan reader recognises instantly comes in: everybody teaches us that style is an expression of personality, while simultaneously selling us the idea that personality changes every two years. Both cannot be true. What actually happened with Delevingne is that for fourteen years she knew when to show up as somebody with nothing to lose.

The current phase - loose trousers, romantic blouses, tousled hair - is described in fashion pieces as softer and more mature. Maybe. Or maybe that is what it looks like when somebody finally has enough credit in the industry not to have to prove themselves on every red carpet.